Lexus suffers early crash, late fire in ill-fated Daytona 24 Hours
Lexus has vowed to bounce back from a disastrous Daytona 24 Hours in which its GTD Pro entry was taken out and its pro-am car suffered a dramatic fire.
Having started from the front row in both GTD classes, the reigning IMSA SportsCar champion No. 14 Vasser Sullivan RC F took the lead of the Pro class with Ben Barnicoat at the wheel.
Barnicoat handed over to Toyota’s WEC star Mike Conway, only for Dennis Andersen's LMP2 car to spin across the track in front of him at the exit of Turn 1, which smashed the front end of the car, requiring extensive repairs.
“Really gutted we had the incident there in the first hour of the race,” said Conway. “Not much I could do to avoid the spinning car in front of me.
“Maybe I could’ve seen it coming, but once it happened, I had nowhere to go.
“I’m really disappointed as I thought we had a good shot at the podium, so unfortunate we couldn’t achieve that.
“Tough day for the entire Vasser Sullivan team, but they’re strong and they’ll come back swinging.”
The car rejoined the race but had to retire in Hour 16 due to overheating issues and was classified 11th.
Photo by: Michael L. Levitt / Motorsport Images
#14 VasserSullivan Lexus RC F GT3: Jack Hawksworth, #12 VasserSullivan Lexus RC F GT3: Frankie Montecalvo
Its sister car was on course for a podium finish in the GTD pro-am class in Parker Thompson’s hands until the final hour, when it burst into flames exiting the pits due to a suspected plenum issue.
“Up until the last hour, the #12 Vasser Sullivan Lexus team did absolutely everything right,” he said.
“From the drivers to the pit crew, the engineers, we were the definition of perfection.
“To have it go away like that has me lost for words honestly. I can’t thank my team-mates enough, particularly Aaron Telitz who did a triple stint there at the end.
“We wouldn’t have been in that position without his effort. The pit box did an amazing job to keep us in the top race all day long.
“Unfortunately, we have to wait another 12 months to get another crack at it.”
GTD Pro spoils went to the #62 Risi Competizione Ferrari 296 of Daniel Serra, Davide Rigon, Alessandro Pier Guidi and James Calado, while Mercedes squad Winward Racing claimed the GTD category in the hands of Russell Ward, Philip Ellis, Indy Dontje and Daniel Morad.
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